Sorry to put the problem here, but I was not able to login at the BOINC message board (telling me, that both my userid and registration number is not known to them ...)

I found already a couple of similar threads but all reported problems are a little different from mine.

Running a german version of BOINC 5.4.9 on WinXP also on an Acer laptop. Soon after booting the system there is the boinc icon in the system tray. All looks fine, but moving the cursor over the icon pops up a msg window, telling "BOINC Manager ist augenblicklich nicht mit einem BOINC Client verbunden" No further question if I want to retry it or so.

Opening the BOINC manager with right-click on the icon opens the manager, but _all_ is empty.
In the lower right corner is displayed: "Verbindung getrennt" (disconnected?).

The advice in other threads was go to the file-menu and reconnect, but in my file menu there is only one single option: "Beenden" (terminate).

At this time is running (task manager):
boinc.exe 0%
boincmgr.exe 0%
rosetta....intelx86.exe (pulling > 95% CPU)

Going to Start > Programs > Autostart and clicking "BOINC Manager" immediately starts another BOINC-manager. This one now is filled with all information as expected in the different register cards and shows the workunit in progress. In the system tray can now be found a second icon of boinc manager.
Terminating the first - empty, not connected - Boinc manager has apparently no influence on the ongoing crunching.

In the "Steuerung" menu (control-menu?) the settings are "Immer ausführen" (always perform?) and "Netzwerkzugriff immer ausführen" (always connect to the net?).

I am running V5.4.9 on 4 boxes, 3x WinXP, 1x Win2000. The described problem shows up only on the laptop.

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Gruß, Gerhard

I USED to have that problem prior to BOINC 5.4.9. They've moved things with the newer BOINC versions, so some of the posts you read were probably talking about the older version. Now on the "Advanced" menu (the one next to "Help"), there is an option for "Retry Communications". I think that should try to contact the crunching client thread again (as well as retry anything shown in your "transfers" tab that might be in a retry wait).

Yes, the reason the display is empty is because it cannot contact the client threads to get their status. And I have seen other posts that indicate that Microsoft decided to start using the TCP port that BOINC registered and was reserved for their use. And that the newer BONIC versions use different localhost ports, and this resolves the conflict.

By the way, just in case the wording helps future reviewers, the new terms in English appear to be:
In the "Steuerung" menu ("Activity" menu) the settings are "Immer ausführen" ("run always") and "Netzwerkzugriff immer ausführen" ("Network activity always available").

The BOINC Wiki says this is a known problem. But there is no reference there to see if the rest of the details match.

I'm assuming that a reboot clears up the problem? In fact, it sounds like you just start BOINC again. And I'm also assuming that it starts out OK, and you leave it crunching overnight or whatever, and come back to find a blank BOINC screen, is that right?

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

By the way, just in case the wording helps future reviewers, the new terms in English appear to be:
In the "Steuerung" menu ("Activity" menu) the settings are "Immer ausführen" ("run always") and "Netzwerkzugriff immer ausführen" ("Network activity always available").

Thanks.

I'm assuming that a reboot clears up the problem? In fact, it sounds like you just start BOINC again. And I'm also assuming that it starts out OK, and you leave it crunching overnight or whatever, and come back to find a blank BOINC screen, is that right?

No, reboot doesn't change anything. After booting comes to an end the situation is as I described: In the system tray a Boinc-manager icon with the information-pop-up when moving the mouse pointer over it, telling that there is at the moment no connection to a client, when opening it it is completely empty but in the taskmanager boinc.exe, boincmgr.exe and rosetta...exe are running.

By the way: I found, that even with this "empty, not connected" Boinc-manager things are going on: When crunching finishes a work-unit result is sent to rosetta and a new work unit is loaded down an crunching continued. It looks as if it has no influence on crunching even if I kill alle boinc-manager tasks. Since I run BOINC "in the background" I usually don't care entries in the manager, so this situation might exists since a longer period.

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Gruß, Gerhard

Das ist ein Problem zwischen BOINCmgr und BOINC, nicht zwischen BOINCmgr oder BOINC und dem Projektserver.

Daher hat es auch in Deinem Fall nichts mit Firewall und/oder Verbindungseinstellungen zu tun.

Benoetigt wird fuer diese Steuerverbindung Port 31416 auf localhost (127.0.0.1).

Startest Du BOINC ueber den BOINCmgr oder laeuft BOINC als Service oder Bildschirmschoner?

Versuche doch 'mal eine andere Start-Art, also BOINC nicht automatisch starten lassen sondern stattdessen den BOINCmgr starten und der startet dann BOINC.


Eine Variante ist eventuell auch, statt des BOINCmgr BoincView einzusetzen, damit kann man das Gleiche tun wie mit dem Mgr, es scheint aber auf manchen Systemen weniger Probleme zu machen.

Ich verwende den 5.2.12, also eine aehnliche Version wie Deine und bei mir tut's der BoincView perfekt. Man kann auch sehr leicht eine kleine Rechnerfarm damit ueber's LAN steuern :-)

Gerhard, it sounds like a port allocation problem. Open a "command prompt" and type in "netstat -ao" and hit enter. Here's mine:



Boinc.EXE communicates with Boincmgr.exe via TCP in a "loopback" manner. As you can see the computer is Listening on port 31416, but there is a loop between Ports 1279 and 31416 are Established for "localhost" to eachother in a loop. You should see a similar loopback(31416 is needed, the other can be any other port).

Also, you need to give boinc Boinc.exe and Boincmgr.exe internet access in your firewall. in 5.4.9 port 31416 is primary, 1043 is secondary. Here's the port requirements:

BOINC Manager needs to be able to open outbound connections to either 1043 or 31416.

BOINC Screensaver needs to be able to open outbound connections to either 1043 or 31416.

BOINC needs to open an inbound connection to either 1043 or 31416, and an outbound connection to port 80 for downloads and uploads of workunits, results, and science packages.

hope this helps
tony

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On my command window PID 2524 is Boinc.exe and 5260 is boincmgr.exe. You can view the PID in "taskmanager" to determine what is using each port by selecting the PID column under the "view" dropdown.

On my command window PID 2524 is Boinc.exe and 5260 is boincmgr.exe. You can view the PID in "taskmanager" to determine what is using each port by selecting the PID column under the "view" dropdown.

First of all many thanks to all who tried to help.

Second:
netstat -ao gives:
[...]
TCP acer800lci:1067 localhost:31416 HERGESTELLT 2300 boincmgr
TCP acer800lci:5679 acer800lci:0 ABHÖREN 868
TCP acer800lci:7438 acer800lci:0 ABHÖREN 868
TCP acer800lci:31416 acer800lci:0 ABHÖREN 2128 boinc
TCP acer800lci:31416 localhost:1067 HERGESTELLT 2128 boinc
[...]

looks ok so far.

Third: Firewall
There is running the Windows-XP System-firewall. It has no outbound restrictions.
Additionally is running the Tiny firewall (TF). Now I found, that in TF was only one entry for boinc outbound tcp port 80! The thins is surprising in so far, as "Ask for action when no rule is found" is checked and there are no further prohibiting rules, so I wonder, why TF didn't pop up with every request from from boinc or boincmgr.
However, as soon as I added manually an entry for BOINC inbound tcp for both 1043 and 31416, without any further intervention (and before I committed the change!!) the empty BOINCmgr-window filled up with all expected entries.
Near to enthusiasm finally I rebooted the system, but to my great disappointment, things look bad as before. Running netstat -ao again the picture changed a little, now there is an additional "waiting" connection for localhost 31416:

TCP acer800lci:1097 localhost:31416 WARTEND 0
TCP acer800lci:1098 localhost:31416 HERGESTELLT 732
TCP acer800lci:5679 acer800lci:0 ABHÖREN 964
TCP acer800lci:7438 acer800lci:0 ABHÖREN 964
TCP acer800lci:31416 acer800lci:0 ABHÖREN 3212
TCP acer800lci:31416 localhost:1098 HERGESTELLT 3212

Next I deactivated my TF ... no change at all.
Trying on Extras (tools?) menu to "Repeat communication" gave no improvement.

Next I deactivated WinXP firewall. No change.

Next I went to Extras > Select Computer. Before I failed when I keyed in the real IP oder 127.0.0.1 - my password was not what was expected there. This time i keyed in "localhost" and simultanously like magic the field with the password was filled. Clicking OK - and the BOINCmgr is filled.
Reactivation of WinXP Firewall
Reactivation of TF
Reboot.
After about 30 seconds of "trying to connect" it is now "connected with localhost" - and all looks fine: expected entries for workunit etc. are visible.

Hm ...
Since it is one of my 4 installations I wonder why only on this one those troubles arose.

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Gruß, Gerhard

Hm ...
Since it is one of my 4 installations I wonder why only on this one those troubles arose.

I have seen several times when a MS update occurs, it nabs boincs port and people see the problem you've had. If you suspect the firewall is the problem next time (after checking netstat), try "uninstalling Boinc" and installing a previous version to make sure the firewall is catching it. Then uninstall again and go back to the newer version. Again, making sure the firewall sees it. Uninistalling Boinc with "Add/remove programs" will not cause you to lose work, so there's nothing but time invested.

tony

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